Most Nominations without a Win: 11

Two films — 1985’s The Color Purple (pictured) and 1977’s The Turning Point — received 11 Oscar nominations (including nods for Best Picture) and went the night without a win.

Most Nominations That Ended in a Complete Sweep: 11 The final chapter in Peter Jackson’s first Middle-earth trilogy, 2003’s The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, took home Oscars in all 11 of its nominated categories, which were: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Film Editing, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Original Song, Best Sound Mixing, Best Use of Cinematic Flimflammery to Trick Audiences Into Sitting Through 13 Different Endings, Best Visual Effects, Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design, and Best Make-Up. (Yes, we added a fake 12th category there.)

I use to love watching the Oscars. Loved them. I looked forward to them every year and never missed watching them. And then about 12 years ago I stopped for two reasons.

First, the Oscars have become so politically correct that I can't stand to watch them anymore. I remember when I heard the words "This song is the first Spanish language song to be nominated for an Oscar" and I turned to my wife and said "It'll win." And it did. The name of the song? I doubt anyone could tell you, they'd be hard pressed to even guess the name of the film (The Motorcycle Diaries).And second the Academy is a bunch of snobs and they keep getting worse. Every year they all make a big deal about some film that no one is ever going to actually watch whether it The King's Speech or The English Patient. You look at these films and you might as well write "No one will remember this film in two years" on their movie posters. But because they're very artistic (whatever that means) they'll win a dozen Oscars. Oh I suppose it might have started earlier but I blame this on the English Patient. It got a huge number of nominations and everyone made a big deal about that and so ever since then they seem to want to top that number each year.

Now, it's a surprise when someone who deserves an Oscar wins. I almost fell off my chair in shock when I read (the next day on the IMDB) that Christoph Woltz had won an Oscar for his role in Inglorius Basterds. Of course he deserved it but so did David Carradine for his role in Kill Bill Vol. 2. The man was mesmerizing. It's just a big surprise when someone gets an award who deserves it. This year I hope that person will be Anne Hathaway. She pretty much made 90% of the people who saw Les Miserable cry, some of us more than once during the film. But is moving an audience to tears mean you are a great actress? **** yes it does! Will the Academy think the same way? Doubtful.Well this turned into a much longer rant than I meant it to and no one will ever read it but oh well.